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Maybe everyone knows it but I just discovered this yesterday! LOL
We already knew that you could press the "2-stage" camera button to get a focus then take the snap shot...but....this sometimes causes the picture to come out blurry because, as has happened to me on many many occassions, I accidentally move the camera. Hate that!
Well, today I found out that I could focus with the camera button then take the snapshot/picture with the action joystick. DUH! Man this makes it much easier to take clear pictures. Hope this tip helps others!
Long live the Athena Project!
ltxda said:
Maybe everyone knows it but I just discovered this yesterday! LOL
We already knew that you could press the "2-stage" camera button to get a focus then take the snap shot...but....this sometimes causes the picture to come out blurry because, as has happened to me on many many occassions, I accidentally move the camera. Hate that!
Well, today I found out that I could focus with the camera button then take the snapshot/picture with the action joystick. DUH! Man this makes it much easier to take clear pictures. Hope this tip helps others!
Long live the Athena Project!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Cool tip!!
you know what...? I didn't know that... THANKS!
je je what a dummies...
Real man don't use this button, they allways use the camera button!
Thanks, really a simple and god tip!
The way I prevent blurry picture due to shaking hand, is to use the timer. In that way, your hand does not move at all, and you will have the best chance of taking a sharp looking picture
ltxda said:
Maybe everyone knows it but I just discovered this yesterday! LOL
We already knew that you could press the "2-stage" camera button to get a focus then take the snap shot...but....this sometimes causes the picture to come out blurry because, as has happened to me on many many occassions, I accidentally move the camera. Hate that!
Well, today I found out that I could focus with the camera button then take the snapshot/picture with the action joystick. DUH! Man this makes it much easier to take clear pictures. Hope this tip helps others!
Long live the Athena Project!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I never knew that (and I thought I'd pressed all the buttons all the time!) Cheers
Cool finding.
I ever found that the force needed to press the camera button to the second position was too much and making almost imposible to keep the camera steady in short distance pictures.
The solution I used to use was the mentioned timed shot, but I found quite anoying waiting for two seconds to the camera to shot.
I was running some tests and I find out quite easy to focus with the camera button and shot with the joystick. But I find out too that pressing the joystick makes the autofocus and shoting in a row. I mean you don't need to press the camera button.
Off course there is a exception. If you need to move the frame between the moment that you autofocus and the shot. This is useful when you want to focus something that is not exactly in the middle of the frame. For example. You have a girl and a landscape behind her. Off course you want to focus the girl but you want the girl, let say, in the right og the picture (of the frame). So you 1) Point the camera to the girl setting her in the middle of the frame then 2) press smoothly the camera button and the focus will be on the girl then 3) while keep pressing the camera button move the frame to set the girl in the right of the frame and 4) either press deeper the camera button (risking the blur picture) or press joystick (as propoussed here) to take the shot. The girl will be focused and in the right.
But... if in the same case you want the girl just in the middle of the frame you can just press the joystick and quickly will focus and shot the camera. You don't need to use both buttons. So the risk of getting blur in the picture is less than using both buttons or (off course) using the two fases camera button only.
Best Regards,
mahjong
mine has "half-press" option (x7501, Dual 3.0 ROM)
Open the camera app.
Tap the wrench icon in the lower left corner.
Tap the wrench icon on the far right of the lineup of icons along the bottom (advanced)
"shoot option" can be set to full press or half press.
It still autofocuses pretty well as long as your pointing the camera right at the subject. If you need to sepreate the focus and shooting functions (like we're doing art shots with this thing?) that's would be your only reason, IMHO, to use the full press.
At least that's how mine works. I couldn't find it in the User manual. Hope it helps.
Awesome feedback people.
I also found that if your experience delays with your camera and keep missing that perfect shot....that setting the camera to the Burst or Sport mode helps. I've had better luck with the Burst mode myself.
FYI, for Athena Project 4.0, we might have an updated camera. ...we'll see how it all goes during testing. Wouldn't want to put something nasty in the ROM just because it's newer.
Hi,
The last two phones I had have both been Blackberry's.
I tried an iPhone recently (1 week) and just found myself pausing to do things that I would do on the blackberry very quickly.
It was almost like I had to completely stop what I was doing and give all my attention
and thought to navigating my way around the iphone, where as with the bb, I seem
to be able to do many tasks with one hand and dont have to think about the task
too much.
I'm wondering if I switch to a G1 how will I go on. Will I find myself waiting for the OS to catch up, continually opening the keyboard to do simple tasks etc?
I like the idea of placing shortcuts on the home screen to dial numbers etc, are there other shortcuts like this?
One task I find myself doing on the bb a lot is taking a quick photo and sending it to a single email address. (the same address every time).
Would this be possible on the G1?
I press the side camera button which opens the camera app,
take the photo by pressing the trackball,
move the trackball to the right and press once.
This gives me the sharing options, "send as email" is the top one.
Click the trackball which adds the photo as an attachment,
type my two letter alias in the To field,
scroll to the subject, type something.
Click the trackball once more and press send.
It sounds a lot when you read it but its pretty quick and simple. Any way of doing this without opening the keyboard?
Thanks
Mike
The camera after taking a pic will offer 4 options, Save/Set As/Share/Delete.
With SnapShotPro you get these options, Save/Delete/Share/Edit.
Touch Share and it will give you a list of options....Gmail/Email/MMS/Myspace/Picsay...the more apps that are able to use your camera the more options...
You only need to open the keyboard to start typing the contact and it will autofind the name for you. But you will still need to open it since there isnt a onscreen keyboard for it yet.
I love snapphoto.. but jesus it's slow to save a photo.
Dirky said:
Hi,
The last two phones I had have both been Blackberry's.
I tried an iPhone recently (1 week) and just found myself pausing to do things that I would do on the blackberry very quickly.
It was almost like I had to completely stop what I was doing and give all my attention
and thought to navigating my way around the iphone, where as with the bb, I seem
to be able to do many tasks with one hand and dont have to think about the task
too much.
I'm wondering if I switch to a G1 how will I go on. Will I find myself waiting for the OS to catch up, continually opening the keyboard to do simple tasks etc?
I like the idea of placing shortcuts on the home screen to dial numbers etc, are there other shortcuts like this?
One task I find myself doing on the bb a lot is taking a quick photo and sending it to a single email address. (the same address every time).
Would this be possible on the G1?
I press the side camera button which opens the camera app,
take the photo by pressing the trackball,
move the trackball to the right and press once.
This gives me the sharing options, "send as email" is the top one.
Click the trackball which adds the photo as an attachment,
type my two letter alias in the To field,
scroll to the subject, type something.
Click the trackball once more and press send.
It sounds a lot when you read it but its pretty quick and simple. Any way of doing this without opening the keyboard?
Thanks
Mike
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The biggest hindrance to super quick operations on the G1 is the lack of on screen keyboard. Without one you'll be much happier on a BB.
hopefully we will get an on screen kb soon. Perhaps with cupcake or it ported over from another phone. It would be so useful for small simple tasks like thsi
axion68 said:
hopefully we will get an on screen kb soon. Perhaps with cupcake or it ported over from another phone. It would be so useful for small simple tasks like thsi
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm being drawn to the G1, an on screen keyboard for occasional use will be very nice.
I'm not keen on the G2 as this will only have an on screen keyboard so it seems?
IMO the real problem is developers making user workflows that require using a keyboard. In many cases I feel that if an app is written properly the need for a keyboard (flip-out or onscreen) should be minimized unless you're doing heavy data entry. As the apps get better over time it's my hope this situation will improve.
How about a handgestures recognition app by using the front camera?
It does'nt have to be complicated to be usefull!
*A simple app that record the biggest movement and the direction it goes by using front cam. -Move your hand to the left in front of the camera to navigate left in a menu.
*Trigged by harware key.
*Just for menu navigation and simple tasks. - To move the marker. -Navigate menus while driving etc..
*Trigged by a system event? Recieve sms. Move hand down do mark as read? Calls?
Just some thoughs. I know we will get some of the feautres in winMo 7, but why wait? Anyone with some spear time?
I 2nd this!
I just read the review for the new SE handsett T707. It has a camera-gesture, for instance you can snooze the alarm by just swiping your hand above the handsett (if it's laying down) or mute calls the same way, configurable.
This should be entirely possible with winmo useing both cameras (preferably the one on the front), all we need is a app. Perhaps there is allready one?
I'm 3rd to this...
This one's pretty cool...
Better if they got configuration like:
If certain program/notification is on (maybe call in or SMS in), the camera is activated by itself.
And also if the phone is faced down (front cam is obstructed so it only get dark image), it auto activate the back cam.
If the back cam is also get dark image (obstructed, maybe the phone is in pocket) it'll activate the flash (if there is any and check if they still get dark image or not, because if you're in the dark room then the camera is getting dark image, so it check if its in dark room or really in the pocket).
Because if you're in dark room, no matter you swipe you hand, it'll get dark image, so with the flash on for certain period of time, the cam can get some image even though its blurry.
Otherwise the program shut itself off and leave the notifications on...
I can see this as cool, but perhaps a bit gimmicky.. I don't really see much use aside from simple tasks until the processors, cameras and RAM can improve drastically.
We x10 users are growing in numbers by the second and it will be a while before we have the luxury of rooting, themes and fixes but what interests me more is having my gripes being herd so the stock phones little issues, bugs and failures software wise are highlighted before the major update in September is released.
So I’m thinking lets list our finding in this thread. From anger causing faults to suggestions to make current features better. Being an SE fan since the T610 I know that SE has a very odd relationship with its fans and something’s don’t hit home when they are staring them in the face but I’m hoping some things will stick.
Once some ideas come in I’d like to create a voting system but I’m not sure how to but I’m willing to take advice. Voting would be useful as I doubt all requests would be seen and acted upon (if any) but it would at least show a priority amongst the x10 users/developers.
So to be clear note software issues that could actually be corrected, improved or implemented. Posting this link on blogs near and far would get our wishes on the radar so please do so as I will. Starting with this one I reckon: http://blogs.extranet.sonyericsson.com/products/
To get the ball rolling...
Generally:
Hit areas for most of the UI seems a little out, maybe a calibration tool like that one found on windows mobile would solve this issue phone wide.
Selecting any audio file give an option to assign to the main ring ringtone. An additional option to assign to a contact seems only natural to be added.
Mediascape:
The track scrub bar is so random and dearly needs its hit area working on.
Old SE features like shake to shuffle, rock clockwise or anti-clockwise to skip forward or backwards/previous, hold on the volume rocker to skip forward or backwards/previous when the phone is locked.
These features are signature SE and I find it odd that they aren’t part of the phones features
Timescape:
It become apparent that this is simply a fancy viewer but it would be amazing for this application to actually be useful and enable the user to send messages in facebook mail and chat. The same for tweeter would make this app more than something people play with for a day.
Viewing the messages via the infinity button looks great, can this not be the default view when actually texting a contact. Contact Pictures and highlighted/different coloured threads.
There’s more but I can add them later.
Mediascape
This is not a bad player at all. But it has too many issues and shortcomings.
1) Its home page is almost useless, because the content in it is hardly what I'm looking for. When I click an album in the home page, I just want to hear that album.
2) I usually just want to browse for artists and albums, and to do this I have to press the little button in the upper right corner of the home screen. So, I would a much more simple, responsive and finger friendly interface. The slider is also very difficult to use.
3) When I disconnect the phone from A2DP, the current now playing list disappears and I can't resume it.
4) I just want indexed audio files in the /sdcard/music folder. Now I get indexed also ringtones and other audio files in SD card (for example, sound effects of a game) and this is a bit annoyance.
5) No way to control playback with device locked. My old SE phones allowed that by long pressing volume keys.
Timescape
After some tests, I no longer use it. I use the GMail client and the stock Facebook application. So I would like to be able to disable timescape and its integration with Contacts and Phone functionality.
Battery
If it is possible to do something via software to improve battery life, do it!
Hardware
I know it is impossible to do a "hardware patch", however I have found 4 basic issues that will drive my choice when I will buy my next smartphone, so this is actually a wish list for the next Xperia:
1) with this hardware design, it is almost impossible to do a good cradle/car holder, and given the very good GPS, this is a HUGE issue...
2) USB connector on top: this is related to the cradle issue, but it is also very uncomfortable speaking at phone when charging the device at home. The USB connector HAS TO BE AT THE BOTTOM OF THE DEVICE!
3) the maximum volume of the speaker is unacceptably low.
4) I really miss some kind of "joystick" to quickly navigate the UI without the touch.
Nice topic!
General:
* It should be possible to stop certain apps (moxier, maps, voice dialer, etc) from autostarting.
E-mail:
* Should be possible to set this app to download only headers. This is such a basic feature.
* Should be possible do discard/not show the oldest messages in inbox. It is already taking a while to load my inbox, what will happen in 6 months?
* Need to be able to attach other types of files than photos.
* When adding e-mail addresses from e-mails to existing contacts, the contact's name should not be overwritten.
Mediascape:
* Definitely needs the possibility to change track during key lock (i.e. holding volume keys).
* It annoys me that long track titles aren't centered.
Photos/camera:
* Need easy access to flashlight!
* Face recognition/identification is messed up, keeps forgetting added names and assigning random new ones. Needs a lot of work!
* When adding a photo as contact photo, it should not be necessary to scroll through all contacts starting from A. Should be possible to choose the first letter (as in contact list), or start spelling.
Contact list:
* When adding a photo to a contact, it should check if I have labeled that contact in any pictures, and suggest those (not just camera roll or standard icons).
Timescape:
* Should be able to display MMS. For example, use image as background and text as text.
* Should be able to display (scroll) longer facebook statuses, rather than sending me to the website.Widget for enabling/disabling wifi, GPS, etc should also include APN, which is not very easily accessible from the menus (many clicks).
Keyboards/language:
* I am missing an easy way to switch between languages (dictionaries)
* Should be possible to delete isolated words that the phone has automatically picked up. Don't want the phone to suggest all my misspelled words in the future. Deleting ALL saved words is not an option.
General
Definitely needs to be a way to disable included apps you're not using (Moxier and Timescape for me)
Info from the Testing menu (dial *#*#4636#*#*) should be available through the standard Settings menu.
Should be a way to adjust the various volumes on the fly without having to go through the Settings menu (pressing the volume keys only changes the Ringer volume, unless actively using Media, in which case Media volume is adjusted).
Would be nice to have a simple app to turn the camera light on and off for use as a flashlight.
Timescape
I don't find it useful at all. The information presented is too limited and the application is dog slow until it's all loaded and updated. Dedicated Facebook and Twitter apps are far better, as is Gmail.
Mediascape
I find it can be slow loading up file lists.
As lornova stated, the home page is useless. I'd rather be taken directly to my files.
Definitely needs lock screen controls. The lack thereof is the primary reason I switched to bTunes for music.
Needs support for DivX, XVid, and other common video codecs (FLV would be a bonus).
Contacts
Lacks options for standard fields from Gmail, such as "website" and "birthdate".
Needs to use the Facebook integration more extensively, automatically linking profiles to contacts and pulling contact photos in (if you choose an option to do so).
Facebook app needs to be registered as a link handler for Facebook links.
Camera
Needs a toggle for the camera light in the main camera UI.
Would be nice if the camera light could be used as a proper flash.
That's it at the moment. I may add more later.
...
I do want to mention, that despite the above issues/requests, I do love my X10 and am very pleased with it overall. But nothing is perfect afterall.
Great thread and I agree with most of the above.
Timescape - I don't use it and perhaps it is a little ahead of it's time. I still see Facebook / Email / SMS as seperate communication methods with seperate purposes, Timescape merges them into one (OK, I know you can seperate them, but still..) it does not still feel natural to merge them into one continuous thread. Perhaps in 5 years time this sort of view will be natural but today I still like to access Facebook / Email / SMS seperately.
Mediascape - The X10 is great as a music player and actually sounds better than my iPOD. Mediascape is almost there but to repeat what has been said above, why does the mediascape homescreen list the recently played as default ? If I have just played an album, why would I want to play it again next time? It would be so much more useful to have random album selections on the front page, or semi-random choices based on the types of tracks recently played.
The 'More' button to get to albums/artists is tricky to press when you are stood in a crowded train, make it biGGER !
The slider for artists/albums/tracks/playlists is almost impossible to use without at least 5 attempts to select the wanted option. SE must have done a field trial with the X10 before the release, why were such simple things not picked up or corrected ?
Battery - Not so much a complaint as it was a week ago, I now manage 30+ hours charge life with reasonable heavy usage, using Moxier/GPS/Bluetooth (no WiFi!), I need to sleep at least 7 hours a day so I have no problem with my phone doing/charging the same. However there are some strange things in regards to battery life on the X10, I have had everything from 7 hours to 35 hours life for a complete charge. I have given up worrying about it but feel convinced that WiFi is the root cause for fast battery drain, even when switched off.
Regardless to the above, I think my X10 is great, the positives far outweigh the negatives and the majority of the negatives could (SHOULD) be easily addressed in a software update. I have friends with Nexus ONE's and HTC phones and I still prefer the X10 WoW, indeed some of my Nexus ONE friends prefer the X10 WoW but still ask is it worth the extra cost ? (I believe it is !!)
I think many of the 'issues' are driven by Android still being an immature OS, the iPhone still feels more smoother and more together than the Android, but the real benefit of Android is the possibilites for customizations... I love being able to see email/rss/news updates on the home screen each time I switch on, rather than having to open up individual apps as I do on the iPhone....
I won't repeat all of the good comments so far.. I agree with most of them..
So, some additional points.
The "Sleep" button on the top of the phone shouldn't be used differently when you're on a call.. I'd like to be able to lock my handset when I'm on a bluetooth call, not wait for it to time out.
More end user customisation in the feature apps would be a great feature (ie.. being able to define your own home screen on Mediascape, so you can make it what suits your needs).
A better photo viewer (This is one thing that the iphone does much better). The standard one is a bit clunky...
A few people have suggested a bigger button to go to the "more" screen.. why not just do what everything else does and allow you to swipe across to it (surely that's the most natural thing to do?!)
When you've named someone.. an option for the phone to go and fetch all other photo's featuring that person would be good..
built in options to manage the start-up of apps.. and monitor your phones performance.
If I think of anything else.. I'll re-post.
A built in deskside alarm clock - that replicates a normal digital clock; I've not found any in the market that really do a good job.
Calendar option - ability to goto a specific date in the calendar rather than having to scroll through to find it.. ("Fancy going to see x in concert on the 23rd Sept?", "ooh, I don't know, give me 5 minutes to find that date in my calendar")
Dialer
Smart Dialing, ability to select different logs.
UI Buttons & selectable text like phone numbers in Person Information
They are just too tiny to click it right. Requires to touch at a precise place. Plus, gets very hard to call someone while driving.
MediaScape
Need to be able to creat playlists.
Need to be able to add a track to current playing queque.
TimeScape
Tweeter/Facebook tiles should have option to pick up Photos from contacts when available. Also improve UI to make text more readable like have a bubble like layer to display text.
headphone/mic
While listening to music, if we get a call it requires us to unplug the headphones to speak on phone. That should be fixed to use the mic on phone.
Lock/Unlock
When on call, the power button should work as screen lock instead of ending the call.
The center Home button should not turn on display when pressed. This is making the display turn on/off constantly when you have phone in pant pocket and is probably draining the battery.
Plus most of the items already listed...
my wishlist:
- increase call volume
- cure wifi bug where wifi drops when the phone loses the mobile network signal
Mediascape
- put in an equalizer
- allow forward/rewind of tracks via the volume rockers when screen is off, just like on all other SE phones
PIM
- make Contacts show birthdays
- then allow Calendar to import birthdays from Contacts!
- incorporate tasks ( and please allow repeatable tasks) into Calendar
- cure Google Calendar sync issues (i have NEVER been able to sync with Google Calendar as yet)
^^
all very basic PIM stuff, although i realize that this is more a Google issue than an SE one
otherwise, i LOVE my X10. a fantastic piece of kit!
I thought that this was in the presentation at the announcement. It's similar to what the iPhone does. Is it coming in a later update? Honestly it's not useful and more of a novelty but it's still kind of cool. And no I won't just go get an iPhone to have it. Never an option
Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk
I wasn't sure if this worked either, so i just did a test of it right now. Make sure burst mode is enabled on your camera. then in the camera app, when taking a photo, press and hold the shutter button... when i did it i had the camera focused on my spare hand, and when i pressed the shutter button (and hold it), i made hand movements while the camera shutter was pressed... i just kind of quickly counted to 5 in my mind. and released shutter button. I was pleased to find an animation that was created in the photos app, an animation of me moving my hand/fingers. pretty neat...
you can share this GIF inside of google hangouts, and the recipient will receive the gif and see the animation. pretty neat.
Well that's very cool!
As a note, if you had auto-upload enabled via Google Photos, it always did this. Now though, it's offloaded that to the phone, so you can have them immediately. Only downside is that these gifs aren't compatible with Facebooks new video upload profile pic. That'd be too easy. :-\